After UCLA’s 72-65 loss to Florida in the third round of the NCAA Tournament on Saturday, the Bruins locker room was a somewhat curious scene.

Some players were sullen, eyes swollen, outwardly emotional about the team’s loss.

But others seemed driven by the defeat, already looking forward to a 2011-12 team that will enter the season with lofty hopes – and expectations.

Just as nearly every UCLA game in the recently concluded 23-11 season, the locker room ran the gamut of emotions.

“We made a very positive step this year,” said UCLA head coach Ben Howland, whose team sank to 14-18 in 2009-10 after a five-year NCAA Tournament run.

“We want to follow it up with an even bigger step the next year. That’s the plan.”

It will only take one offseason for one of UCLA’s biggest weaknesses in the 2010-11 to become one of its biggest strengths next year.

Perhaps what junior guard Malcolm Lee said after the game best summed up the team’s 2010-11 campaign: “We bounced back from a down season, although we felt like we were own worst enemy.”

And at times, they were.

The boyish Bruins took Howland to great heights and great lows, often in single games, developing a propensity for either mounting big comebacks or blowing big leads. But a team that had no seniors, with a roster loaded with underclassmen, will suddenly become one of the most experienced units in the conference, if not the country.

Although Lee and sophomore forwards Tyler Honeycutt and Reeves Nelson are expected to test the NBA draft waters – Honeycutt is expected to leave, Lee and Nelson to stay – UCLA will return a veteran squad that adds a pair of high-profile transfers in David and Travis Wear, who sat out the season after leaving North Carolina.

Point guards Lazeric Jones and Jerime Anderson will return for their senior years, freshman center Joshua Smith has said he is returning and the team adds valuable role players in center Anthony Stover, forward Brendan Lane and guard Tyler Lamb.

“There is no substitute for experience,” Howland said. “It’s really important. It is critical to have guys who have experience, and who’ve had positive experience.

“I’ve been telling some of our guys – Malcolm Lee, Honeycutt, Jerime Anderson – how much those guys improved from a year ago. You think where they were a year ago, to this season? They all sustained very upward tracks of improvement.”

Howland would not speculate on any potential preseason rankings for his upcoming, up-and-coming team, but he longs to get back on the practice court, though it will be a different practice court – the Student Activities Center men’s gym – with Pauley Pavilion under construction for a year.

“I’m just excited about the competition we’re going to have,” Howland said. “When we’ve had our best teams, the competition daily in practice is what makes people really good, makes them better. When you get that competition – and some fresh meat when you’re playing your opponent – that’s fun.”

Lee on the mend

Howland said Lee’s left knee surgery went well Tuesday and that the All-Pac-10 first-team selection is expected to miss two to four weeks.

Lee had surgery to repair both a small cartilage tear and a small meniscus cartilage tear, suffered in the closing moments of the Bruins’ regular-season ending win March 5 at Washington State.

Bated breath

Though he may seem to be cool-as-a-cucumber, there is little doubt that Howland is on pins-and-needles as he waits on the future plans of Honeycutt, Lee and Nelson.

“If anybody is projected in the lottery, top-15 essentially, then yeah, they’d have my blessing,” Howland said. “You always want to go early because there’s more of a commitment from a team to you.”

Howland said he was wary of a potential NBA lockout, though, and that would be something talked about in the discussions.

“If you’re a lottery pick, then there’s a little more contemplation even with the lockout,” Howland said, making his best pitch. “If you’re a guy who’s in the 20s or 30s then definitely, you want to improve yourself. You won’t even get paid half the year.”